


Second, learn from the mistake

by kifer



Series: First, do no harm [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Human Experimentation, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-11
Updated: 2017-06-11
Packaged: 2018-11-12 23:48:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11172651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kifer/pseuds/kifer
Summary: Liz Kifer, Doctor to the Avengers and the Avengers are back!  After the events of First Do No Harm the First, Liz and Steve are together and about to get married, but there is much worse trouble ahead, trouble that will change her life and their relationship forever...





	Second, learn from the mistake

I am at the end of the row of folding chairs, and all eyes are turned back toward me as I prepare to come forward. Clint is sitting with his family and Natasha and he smiles at me encouragingly. I clutch the bouquet in my hands a little tighter. They all offered to walk me down the aisle, Coulson and Thor, Tony and Sam, even Fury, but since I could not choose who it should be, in the end I decided to do it alone. I am regretting this a little now, until I look further forward and see Steve standing there with Bucky beside him in their matching morning coats. Steve is beaming and unconsciously bouncing a little on the balls of his feet, and when I look at Bucky he parodies his own scowl broadly at me, wiggling his fingers behind Steve’s back. I giggle and my butterflies disappear.

As I take the first step my eyes rise beyond the platform to the sky beyond, drawn by some movement. The sky has some steel gray shot through the blue – it is supposed to rain a little later on – but what has captured my attention is the treeline high above. The tops of the trees are tossing as if a storm was already howling through them, but the air is perfectly still below. As I watch, one clump of branches and then another dip and sway, coming closer. I crane my neck to see better and when I glance down I see a tiny crease form between Steve’s brows as he notices my face. He leans over to whisper something to Bucky but in mid turn his head suddenly whips around behind them.

All at once the enormous face bursts from between the trees, green and huge, distorted even more by rage. The roar blasts so loudly that my ears ring. The gigantic foot slams down on the pedestal where Steve and others are standing and they are tossed aside in every direction like twigs in a gale. The guests in the front rows scream and run, overturning chairs, parents dragging children. The Hulk seems confused by their flight in different directions and stands for a moment watching. _I really ought to run too_ I think numbly, but find I can’t move a muscle. His green flaring eyes fix on me and he leans his huge head down to see. When he plants his hands down on either side of me it shakes the ground and I stumble sideways, catching my heel and falling sideways in the grass. _Don’t scream, don’t scream, don’t scream, don’t scream…_ He draws his right hand back to swat at me and unable to get up or dodge in my long full skirt, I flatten myself as much as I can against the ground. I glare up at him, and sure that I am about to die, I yell recklessly “How could you?” at him.

The green hand floats where it is, drawn back to hit, as he stares at me. With a jolt I realize that Steve, Tony, Clint, and Bucky are all standing in front of me, between me and the Hulk. Steve is holding the shield ready to throw, Bucky has ripped the sleeve of his jacket away and is holding an enormous automatic cradled in the metal arm, Clint has three arrows nocked and ready in his bow, and Tony is wearing one arm and most of a torso of an Iron Man suit, left hand upraised and glowing. _Where were they hiding all that at my wedding?_ I wonder with the hysterical urge to laugh. The Hulk growls low in his throat.

The sound of the growl merges into a crackle of thunder and the Hulk turns his face up to the sky. Steve shifts his stance and I nod at him as he casts a worried glance toward me. Besides the torn remains of his pants, I see the tatters of a coat lapel around Hulk’s neck and realize that Bruce must have been on his way here before whatever happened happened. 

With a whispering noise like a slow outbreath a gentle rain begins to fall. The Hulk makes an odd chuffing noise like a bear and leans back on his haunches with the back of his hands against the ground. He closes his eyes and opens his mouth to let the water flow in. After a moment, I crawl away from him towards Steve and he holds out his free hand to take mine. Bucky closes ranks in front of us and jerks his head at Steve to take me behind them. I am unsteady on my feet and after standing I slip out of my heels and leave them behind. Steve pulls me in behind his shield arm and we slowly back away together. As we do so I see Natasha edge forward and put both of her arms around one of Hulk’s trailing fingers as she begins to talk to him. 

There had been limousines and cars waiting and most of the guests have long since fled, but two cars are still on the circle with Tony’s most experienced drivers, the ones who have seen it all, still there. Steve helps me in to the back of one and starts to back out again, but I clutch his sleeve. A deadening chill has settled through me in the sodden dress. “S..s..ss..Steve,” I stammer, unable to stop trembling. 

This decides him and he clambers in after me and shuts the car door. “Avengers Tower”, he tells the driver, and pulls me onto his lap, heedless of my mud covered skirt. The carnation in his buttonhole falls as I hold his lapels and try to burrow into his warmth. He kisses me softly and strokes my hair. “I’m so glad you are all right,” he whispers. 

“I thought he was going to kill me,” I say dully.

“I thought you were going to kill him, the way you looked at him.” Steve chuckles deep in his chest and rubs his cheek against mine. “I love you.”

I don’t know why I don’t say I love him back at that moment, for I do, but something in me is deadened and I don’t have words. I put my arms around him as far as they will reach and sigh, trusting him to know what I mean. We ride back in silence, twined together.

He draws a hot bath for me while I sit on the bed, undoes the hooks on the back of the dress for me, and leaves me to undress the rest of the way and step into the water. I look at the pile of cream colored satin with its white lace overlay and know that however we manage our next attempt at a wedding, I won’t wear it again. I would expect to feel more upset over the ruined ceremony, even to cry, but I feel something else, a slow burning resentment, a strange kind of determination. _I have to do something about this. I will._

**Author's Note:**

> Great to be back after a long absence! Hope you enjoy this beginning and want to follow along on Liz's further adventures. Will be restarting work on Witch as well. This is clearly still pre-Civil War, haven't quite figured out where in the timeline things will fall, but will become clear.


End file.
